“Trump is in even more trouble”: Judge demands answers after report that Trump CFO “lied under oath”
New York Judge Arthur Engoron demanded answers from the former president’s lawyers in a new email suggesting “Trump is in even more trouble,” The Daily Beast’s Jose Pagliery reports.
The New York Times reported last week that longtime former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg is in talks with Manhattan prosecutors to plead guilty to perjury after a Forbes article discredited his claims about Trump’s inflated penthouse apartment value. Weisselberg was abruptly pulled from the stand in Trump’s fraud trial after the article was published.
“As the presiding magistrate, the trier of fact, and the judge of credibility, I of course want to know whether Mr. Weisselberg is now changing his tune, and whether he is admitting he lied under oath in my courtroom at this trial,” Engoron wrote in an email to Trump’s legal team and the New York attorney general’s office.
Engoron also noted that “Weisselberg’s lies could be used to completely toss out everything he said in defense of the company—and even allow the judge to make negative inferences about the Trump Organization’s fraudulent conduct,” according to Pagliery.
“Although the Times article focuses on the size of the Trump Tower Penthouse, his testimony on other topics could also be called into question. I also may use this as a basis to invoke falsus in uno,” Engoron wrote, referencing the maxim “false in one thing, false in everything.”
“I do not want to ignore anything in a case of this magnitude,” he added.
Trump’s lawyers have until 5 pm on Wednesday to respond, according to the report.